April 03, 2013 -- Leica Geosystems Inc. announced that North West Geomatics Ltd. is the first aerial mapping firm to purchase the new Leica ADS100 digital pushbroom camera technology. Under the agreement, Leica Geosystems is upgrading six of North West’s existing Leica ADS80 cameras to the new ADS100 model. In addition, North West will perform a series of flight tests on a Leica ADS100 beta unit and enhance the jointly developed Leica XPro workflow to ingest and process image data from the new camera.

Based in Calgary, Alberta, North West Geomatics has provided digital remote sensing, aerial photography, and LiDAR services to the North American market since 1968. An owner and operator of digital imaging cameras and airborne laser systems from the Leica ADS and ALS series of aerial sensors, North West has worked with Leica Geosystems in creating the Leica XPro workflow. A commercially available Leica product, XPro automates and streamlines processing of large data sets collected by the Leica ADS digital pushbroom cameras.

“We committed early to testing and buying the new Leica ADS100 camera technology because the enhanced spatial resolution and radiometric sensitivity of this sensor will enable us to deliver superior image products to our customers,” said John Welter, North West Geomatics Vice President. “With the rich spectral content of the Leica ADS100 imagery, we expect to broaden our activity in traditional remote sensing markets such as agriculture, forestry and environmental monitoring.”

The Leica ADS100 is the latest digital camera in Leica Geosystems’ successful line of ADS series pushbroom aerial sensors. At 20,000 pixels native resolution across all bands, the Leica ADS100 offers nearly double the swath width and productivity than its predecessors. With a revolutionary beamsplitter design and focal plate layout, there is four-band (Red, Green, Blue, Near-Infrared) detection in the forward, nadir and backward directions, ensuring three-angle stereo collection in full color. In addition, to further improve light sensitivity and image quality despite a smaller pixel size, the Leica ADS100 uses the first large format CCD line with Time Delay Integration (TDI) technology.

“The Leica ADS100 is already creating excitement in the industry due to the high productivity it brings to data acquisition and product generation,” said Jean Gardiner, General Manager of Leica Geospatial Solutions. “In a highly competitive market place, the new Leica ADS100 will deliver many opportunities for aerial mapping companies to differentiate themselves.”

Along with the Leica ADS100, Leica Geosystems has introduced its new Common Platform Concept which will reduce the cost of acquiring future systems. The PAV100 camera mount, control unit, pilot display and all mission planning/image processing software delivered with the Leica ADS100 are compatible with the Leica ADS80 and RCD30 Oblique systems as well as other sensors in the future. Under the Common Platform Concept, cameras will be easily swapped between aircraft, and personnel will only need training once to learn the hardware and software.